2025-12-25
Packing up to head home.
I was putting air back in my ties and noticed something amiss… Do you see it. No biggie, I carry spares, checked the torque on the rest of them and headed safely home!
Enjoying the hills off in the distance
It was such a pretty day. 50º and sunny. Back home, the snow had already started…
If you’re going to rip your steering bracket off your axle…
…this is a good place to have nearby. I "might" have ripped my steering bracket right off my axle on the trails over a weekend of hard stuff. Good news, we banded together, used a ratchet strap to hold it in place for a bit, and gently drove off the trails to this shop. It was literally a "have lunch here while we weld it back on for you" kind of situation. Zoe of course had all the love she could want, and we had a great meal. $80 and less than two hours and we were headed back out to the trails for a restart of day 3.
2025-12-24
60 inches!
Andy scored a sixty inch pipe wrench from facebook! It's cartoonish in size and weight! Something like 50 pounds!
Day one of Windrock complete…
…Enjoying the stars out away from town! So many! These days, we can barely see many of them. It used to look more like this when I was a kid. Another reason to get out on the trails, enjoying the scenery while camping. :)
Stretchy stretchy…
It still doesn't seem like this kind of flexibility and stretching should be possible. Mechanical works of art I guess. 🤪
Testing out my new suspension components…
I normally like to shake things out a bit before hitting the trails, especially hard ones. One thing led to another this time around, and it just didn't work out. The work was finished at 6:30p the night before and I hit the road at 7a the next morning. So, first chance I got, I made sure it would still articulate and nothing was hitting in either direction for both the front and rear axles. It was working just the way it should. I maxed it out nicely on this rock. Notice the rear driver wheel floating in the bottom pic…
I do trust the folks that help me with my builds for sure, so it worked out! I got some REALLY NICE shocks out of the deal at a priced similarly to normal ones. Win-Win.
2025-12-23
1 ride, 5 rigs, 4 Davids!
Four out of five of the drivers were named David. The one that wasn't had a brother AND a dad named David. And yeah, we're all going in a different direction at the moment I took this shot…
Joke of the day: "What a difference a Dave makes"!
We all made it out onto Panther Rock
It was the one moment when everyone that was there for the weekend was on the trail all at the same time.
Leading a hard group ride…
A weekend ago, I got the chance to lead a hard club ride at Windrock. We were blazing trails on some of the black trails we hadn't tried before and nobody had been on since the snow a week or so ago. Pretty and fun!
Before and after?!
My springs and shocks were overdue for replacement… You can see the before on the left. Not the bottom of the "M" which is the Metalcloak logo on the silver fender well liner. The top of the tire has got to be at last three inches higher off the top of the tire (after picture on the right). Crazy part is, I only had a three inch lift. It was all but GONE! That'll be my new excuse for any obstacle I struggled to climb earlier in the year 🤪
2025-12-22
Moonlight?
I took this shot of Julie's tree with the lights in the room and the tree all out. It was a fill moon night. There were a couple LEDs on in the room, hence the blue and green on the ceiling. I thought it made for an interesting picture?!
One of my pics made it into the club calendar :)
I took that middle pic on the left of my rig while we were waiting for the guy in front of me who'd lost his front drive shaft in the mud hole… We then became good friends as he rode around the rest of that day and the next with me. Fitting that the pic of my rig is in August. :)
Fun coincidence…
Isaac discovered and sent me this album/artist at the same time that I had stumbled onto him and was working on my own playlist of Peyton Parrish's work. I found him on a country gospel station, that led me to his sea shanty music, then I realized I was hearing some worship songs I knew and so I looked up all his stuff. Quite the variety, but some of it is really good. More of a harder rock style, so not for most, but some of my nephews and I like that vibe a lot.
2025-12-21
Meanwhile, I was enjoying the view…
…from the other side of my hotel room during my travels to Phoenix a week or two ago.
2025-12-20
We even managed to find mud in the desert!?
If you look closely, you can tell I was wearing my seatbelt like a good boy. Haha.
Wild to think about how this all gets formed
We enjoyed both the scenery and some adrenaline on our buggy trip out west.
2025-12-19
Pretty cool medieval ping-pong
Granite table, chain mail net and weighted self tension in system. Pretty awesome. 
Found out why we came to a stop…
Because THIS guy rolled his side by side…
20 rigs and he JUST HAD TO BE THE ONE… He wasn't even moving at the time he rolled it… Anyhow, you can see that we gave him a lot of grief! The picture of the side by side i real. One of his buddies MIGHT have used some creative photoshop to insert the picture of him??? Good news, only pride was hurt, and we rolled on while he waited for a trail with one of the guides.
2025-12-18
The desert?!
That's a lot of water for my perception of what a desert should be… Regardless, it was cool to see the saguaro cacti along the river. I guess they have more water in the winter months? 
I appreciate how my work takes care of us!
A couple weeks ago, when I was on this trip, I was thinking about how it's nice that they give us this time and funding to spend once a quarter to put aside the cares of week and enjoy life with our colleagues. Ironic that the name of the town was Carefree! Perfect!
We just tooled out of town into the desert
Pretty awesome views and we haven't even left pavement yet!
We grabbed 20 side by sides and headed out into the desert!
Quite a fun gathering for a work day afternoon if you ask me! :)
2025-12-17
They’ve done a good job with the info you need
I'm driving to the airport for a trip and it gives me everthing I need to know without having to ask for it. Nice!
Flew to phoenix
I had a business meeting in Phoenix a couple weeks ago. Of course, I had to stop at In-N-Out for lunch! A bunless double-double and a coffee hit the spot!
Julie starting on her tree
She makes it look so nice with all her hard work winding the lighting around the trunk, then slowly working her way out!
2025-12-16
A nice day for a walk?
The dogs think so. Zoe loves to plow her nose through the snow uncovering all the hidden smells.
I always like this part of the holidays
Julie getting all her lights working. It makes a pretty picture. It's usually warm enough that at least one of the cats will sit around it too.
A pretty view out my office a couple weeks ago.
Pretty much the same scene as today, haha. Winter is here this year for sure!
One out of eight ain’t bad…?!
Julie's been wiping the floor with me in our competitions. I finally managed to get a good week in when she had a couple busy days and I just barely passed her. We were tied right up until the end… Fun to help motivate each other to keep ourselves moving and fit.
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